By Mike Lehman, TTU Sports Information
JACKSON, Tenn. – On a day of what-ifs, it was No. 2 seeded Morehead State that came out on top over the Tennessee Tech baseball team Wednesday evening, edging the No. 5 seeded Golden Eagles in a 12-inning, rain delayed, pitcher's duel, 3-2, to open the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament in Jackson, Tenn.
A game originally set to kick off at 1 p.m. CT, the two squads patiently waited over an hour to finally begin their respective postseason runs, with the contest not commencing until 2:15 p.m. From that point, Tech ace Michael Wood and Morehead ace Matt Anderson traded blows back and forth, watching some spectacular defensive plays keep zeroes across the scoreboard over the first five innings.
After turning just 26 double plays its entire 53-game regular season, the Golden Eagle squad racked up four on the day, helping Wood keep the Eagles off the board for the first six frames. On the flip side, highlight-reel stops, particularly from first baseman Tyler Niemann who made as many as five exceedingly above average defensive plays, made the difference for the de facto home team.
Anderson held Tech off the scoreboard for five innings, but a sixth-inning, leadoff double off the bat of junior Chris Brown produced hope for the Golden Eagles. Hope turned to belief after a wild pitch allowed the designated hitter to advance to third and belief turned to reality following a Trevor Putzig sacrifice fly to the wall in right field. Brown scored on the sac fly to give Tech a 1-0 lead in a contest where runs were at a premium.
But then, just one inning later, the rains came. And they stayed for the long haul. The tarp covered the field to halt play during the seventh inning stretch and nearly three and half hours would pass before it would commence, much to the detriment of the Golden Eagle squad.
Seemingly all the momentum belonged to the purple and gold prior to the rain delay, with Michael Wood sitting pretty at just 70 pitches and a six-inning, three-hit shutout in the works. The Golden Eagles had just broken a five-inning scoreless tie and managed to chase Anderson from the contest in the top of the seventh.
But with a delay of such magnitude and length, the Golden Eagles had no choice but to turn to the bullpen in the midst of perhaps the finest start of Wood's young Tech career.
Freshman Ethan Roberts took over on the hill for Wood, and after walking the first two batters he faced, the right-hander settled down to snag an out on a sacrifice bunt. He followed that up with back-to-back strikeouts to end the frame and put Tech just six outs from victory.
Brown gave the Golden Eagles some insurance before Roberts took the mound again, crushing the tournament's first home run to deep left center, increasing the Tech lead to two runs in the top of the eighth.
Unfortunately, Morehead State had an answer. After drawing a leadoff walk to start the bottom half, the Eagles turned to Braxton Morris for a lift. He delivered with a two-run shot to left field to tie things at 2-2 and essentially erase the first eight frames of the contest.
The two teams then battled back-and-forth over the next four frames before a two-out, RBI single off the bat of Reid Leonard ended the three-hour, 48-minute affair that spanned nearly 10 hours when taking into account pregame warm ups and batting practice.
Patrick McGuff took the victory while Tech's Travis Moths took the tough-luck loss in the bottom of the 12th. The sophomore tossed two and two thirds innings while allowing just two walks and a hit batter before surrendering his first hit of the contest. He also struck out four.
The Golden Eagles will now look to stave off elimination Thursday morning with an 11 a.m. contest at the Ballpark at Jackson, facing off against the losing team from Wednesday night's match-up between No. 3 Austin Peay and No. 6 Belmont.
Photo by Tony Marable
